Superhero Sundays: October 10-14

Penguin is mayor of Gotham, National City meets Superman, the Inhumans are under threat, Barry comes clean to Team Flash, Oliver is a terrible mentor, the Legends kidnap Einstein, and we learn the origin of Luke's powers - all of this plus news, trailers, and comic recs!

We're at FULL ROSTER this week with Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow finally debuting, so let's get started!

Small Screen Supes

Speedy Synopses

Gotham3x04: New Day Rising

Indian Hill Bruce and Selina go on a search for Ivy, and stop to rob a betting house on the way. Selina gets caught, and I.H. Bruce fights their way out of the bad situation. Selina quickly realizes that he's not the actual Bruce. She's frightened at first, but he explains what happened to him. And when Selina complains that she's out of friends, I.H. Bruce puts the moves on her. He then decides to leave Gotham, and when Bruce and Alfred catch up to him, he leaps from the roof ... and easily survives. Of course, the group behind Indian Hill find him and take him in.

Jervis Tetch coerces the Tweeds, a group of rotund wrestlers with a penchant for stripes, into attacking GCPD to break Alice out. (While at the precinct, she gave Lee some of her blood and chatted about the abusive and definitely insane childhood spent with her brother.) Jervis takes Alice back to an abandoned amusement park, and Jim and Harvey eventually follow. Jim breaks the hold Jervis has on him, but in the ensuing scuffle, Alice falls, is impaled, and dies.

Penguin continues his run for mayor of Gotham with Ed Nygma on his team, but Butch and Nygma don't exactly see eye-to-eye. When Nygma goes behind both Butch and Penguin's backs to help him run a clean fight, Penguin's eager to let Butch kill him. But then Penguin actually wins, and Butch is knocked down a few pegs while Nygma rises to become Penguin's Chief of Staff.

The episode comes to a close with Jim admitting he's happy for Lee, albeit begrudgingly, and a drop of Alice's blood falling into Captain Barnes' eye. (Mandy C.)

Supergirl 2x01: The Adventures of Supergirl

The show opens right where we left off in the season finale, as a mysterious craft crashes to Earth. The inhabitant of the spaceship is finally revealed: A young man, a stranger to Kara and everyone else. Did he come from Krypton? The DEO is investigating in their swanky new HQ in a skyscraper in National City. (Goodbye, basement!)

The next day, a passenger spacecraft experiences an engine failure during takeoff. It’s up to Supergirl to save the hundreds on board—but she's not alone! Her cousin, seeing the crash on the news, flies to help. The two super cousins save all on board.

Supergirl takes Superman to the DEO, and everyone in the office stares in awe and respect. Everyone, that is except Hank, who has a past with the Man of Steel. Superman and Supergirl decide to investigate the one passenger who skipped the flight, Lena Luthor, Lex Luthor’s sister.

They discover that Lena isn’t the mastermind behind the attack but rather the target. John Corben, an assassin for hire, has her in his sights. They foil his attempt to kill her and Lena shoots him before he can hurt Alex Danvers.

Meanwhile, Kara is trying to figure out what to do with the open job offer Cat Grant mentioned at the end of the first season. Cat tells Kara to dive into new and dangerous waters, pausing a moment to perhaps think about her own complacency. (Noooo, don’t leave us, Cat!) Kara makes two key decisions: She wants to be a reporter, and she needs time on her own, telling James Olsen she just wants to be friends. Winn is hired by the DEO (about time) and Clark Kent decides to stick around a few days to learn more about his parents from Kara. (Kelly)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 4x03: Uprising

While at a bachelorette party in Miami, Yo-Yo watches as all power in the city goes out. A group called the Inhuman Resistance takes credit for the EMP and states their demands: end registration and allow Inhumans to live in peace. Director Mace sends Coulson, Mack and Fitz to Miami to investigate.

Unfortunately, a group of armed men arrive at Yo-Yo's hotel, looking for an Inhuman. Another EMP takes out Coulson, Mack and Fitz's tech, but they eventually make it to the hotel and find that the armed men are actually part of the Watchdogs—and they have a list of registered Inhumans. Fitz figures out a way to find the pulse mechanism, and they take it out.

In L.A., Daisy and Robbie go looking for Robbie's uncle, who used to work at Momentum Labs, when another power outage occurs. They race to find Gabe, Robbie's brother, and hole up at the brothers' house for a bit. When Robbie goes out to find Daisy some meds, Gabe asks her to leave.

Simmons and Radcliffe head to a CDC hospital to hopefully fix whatever's driven May mad. They find something wrong with her adrenal glands; she's literally being scared to death. Radcliffe comes to the startling determination that killing her might actually be the way to save her. Of course, as they're just about to bring her back to life, the power goes out. They eventually get her heart restarted, and, voila, she's cured.

In order to quell fears that arose from the Watchdogs blaming in the Inhumans for the attacks, Director Mace announces in a national press conference that S.H.I.E.L.D. is back. Senator Nadeer (hey, hey, Parminder Nagra!) watches from a giant pile of mail, and answers a call from the Watchdogs, approving their 17 Inhuman kills. As she leaves, she says goodbye to a figure that looks to be coated in the rock substance that happens when someone turns into an Inhuman (or crumbles into dust ...). (Mandy C.)

The Flash 3x02: Paradox

Barry is still discovering all of the changes he's made in creating another new timeline, the saddest being that Cisco's brother Dante was killed by a drunk driver a few months back. Our Cisco has lost his sunny disposition and love for naming new villains, and it's all kinds of sad. Barry has a new officemate in Draco Malfoy Julian Albert, a British CSI agent that specializes in metas AND hates Barry. It doesn't take long for the feeling to be mutual. An attempt at reconciling Joe and Iris over Grandma Esther's noodle dish makes for the most awkward dinner EVER, and Barry races off to try and fix things again by doing the exact same thing that broke it all in the first place.

Jay Garrick to the rescue! He literally pulled Barry out of the space/time continuum and sat his ass down for coffee, corned beef hash, and a long overdue lecture from a fellow speedster. Jay reveals that he knows that he's Henry Allen's doppelganger. He validates all of Barry's various feelings about that, and wins all of our hearts. Barry realizes that being a man means that you have to accept consequences and learn to move forward, so he returns to tell Team Flash the truth. After initial feelings of confusion and anger (on Cisco's part), Iris makes everyone realize that this is BARRY they're talking about here. THEIR Barry. They've all made mistakes, and they always forgive each other. Father-daughter reunion commences!

Meanwhile, The Rival, aka Edward Clariss, is lured to the lair of Doctor Alchemy (Cisco is BACK!). (I'm gettng a very strong Dark Crystal vibe from his choice of costume.) He tells Edward that he seeks to awake all metas of their true potential. Once his speed is restored, Clariss harasses Flash into tracking him down, and just when we think Barry isn't going to win Cisco suits up and saves the day! The Rival is in Iron Heights, but he's not giving up any details on his creator.

Barry's assurance to Caitlyn that she was affected the least by the new timeline reveals that her Killer Frost powers are very much alive and very much a secret. Barry and Iris have their "first" kiss on the West's front porch and it is romantic and perfect. Clariss is visited in his prison cell by a very disappointed Doctor Alchemy (I think?), and that's the end of The Rival. (Amanda R.)

Arrow 5x02: The Recruits

Oliver is ready to start training new recruits, Curtis, Rene Ramirez, and Evelyn Sharp, but is insisting on remaining disguised and wants Felicity to do so as well. But she ain’t having it. The useless Russian flashbacks show us that Oliver is using the tactics he learned in gang initiation to train his new team. While Oliver trains scrubs, Diggle simultaneously trains soldiers. Dig is much better at it. Quentin is definitely drinking again, but like all non-Green Arrow problems, Oliver piles it on Thea’s plate.

Yet another new hooded villain in town, Ragman (Cisco would hate that name), takes out the VP of Ameritek, the company that Mayor Oliver just convinced to help fund the new free city clinics. Oliver makes all kinds of promises to the CEO that the clinic opening will be secure. So of course, the Ragman attacks the clinic, and his recruits aren’t ready for it. Though to be fair, this guy seems to disappear into thin air and I’m not here for another magical villain. Felicity sweet talks her new boyfriend, Detective Malone, into running some tests on a fabric swatch one of the recruits managed to get from Ragman. But it’s mainly a way for us to find out that he doesn’t know anything about her side hobby, or friend in green. We find out Ameritek is in bed with Church, the new gang leader in town. And the team realizes the Ragman was actually after Ameritek, not innocent bystanders. After luring him into helping them, Oliver gets the Ragman to reveal himself as none other than another scrub vigilante, whose dad wrapped him in radioactive rags (what?) to save him on Genesis day. This hooded guy is not to be confused with yet another new one in town, who uses a bow and arrow, and goes by Prometheus. I can barely keep track anymore, y’all.

Thea gives Quentin a job as Deputy Mayor, to give him something other to do than drink. He’s suitably unimpressed with the Mayor’s office’s hiring criteria. Felicity pep talks Oliver into showing his new team who he really is, because otherwise, they don’t trust him and they’re going to leave. Of course, she’s right, and revealing himself to be the pretty boy mayor wins the team over. On the other side of the world, Diggle gets taken hostage by corrupt soldiers bent on selling nuclear technology. They set him up to be the scapegoat, and he may be looking at a court martial. Come back to Star City with vengeance in your heart, Dig! You’re welcome here. (Kandis)

Legends of Tomorrow 2x01: Out of Time

Mayor Oliver Queen gets a call from a panicked (but well coifed) man claiming to be a Time Detective/Historian, a man who’s noticed a few oddities in the time line. The duo team up to locate the Waverider at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where Mick Rory is frozen in time. Once awakened, he relays what the Legends have been up to: Saving Louis XIII and doing the exact opposite of what Rex Tyler advised them by traveling to 1942.

Come to find out, those pesky time pirates have been up to no good, causing rifts in time and destroying NYC and extending WWII by two years. What better way to give Hitler the power he needs than by kidnapping Einstein and ensuring atomic power gets in the wrong hands. And who else would be at the helm but one Damian Darhk, who Sara is gunning for. So the Legends kidnap Einstein before his smarts can be used for bad. Unfortunately this did not stop the bomb from existing and Rip decides the best course of action is to spread the Legends all over time and run the Waverider into the bomb. Yeah, that ended exactly how you might it imagine it. Ray’s with the dinosaurs, the Firestorm team is about to be beheaded, Sara is seducing the Puritan ladies, and Rip is MIA.

Never one to be beaten, we see Darhk and the Reverse Flash have teamed up to continue their plight of changing history. Good thing the Justice Society of America is there to save the Legends from their own doom. (Christy)

Luke Cage 1x04: Step in the Arena

As Luke and Connie lie unconscious in the rubble of the building Cottonmouth blew up, Luke’s memories bubble up to the surface to show us what really happened during his time at Seagate prison. Back then he was just Carl Lucas, a former cop who was framed and falsely imprisoned.

Determined to get through every miserable day on his own, Carl at first rebukes relationships with anyone else at Seagate. But Squabbles, a fellow prisoner, and Dr. Reva Connors, the prisoner psychologist, break through to him.

A corrupt guard notices Carl and uses his fondness for those two against him, threatening to hurt them if Carl doesn’t join his underground prison fight ring. Carl eventually rebels, and the guard gets his revenge by setting two prisoners to beat him within an inch of his life.

Reva, seeing the shape he’s in, asks the prison doctor to put him in an experimental healing bath, but the angry guard interferes. The experiment goes awry, and when Carl emerges, he’s the unbreakable man we’ve come to know. He escapes the prison and seeks out Reva, who promises to tell him why she was involved with the experiments at Seagate. But first, he settles on a new name for his new life: Luke Cage.

Back in the present, Luke singlehandedly breaks Connie and himself free from the rubble, much to the surprise of the firemen and news crews on site. (Kelly)

Hero of the Week: Superman, Supergirl

Sorry, Supergirl, but your cousin stole your season premiere this week. This Clark Kent is the Clark Kent we all want right now (sorry, Man of Steel). His charm and rapport with Kara are undeniable, and we all felt a little bit of the same awe everyone at the DEO did because Tyler Hoechlin is kinda perfect as Superman. Am I the only one hoping The CW gives him his own show? (Kelly)

Nygma knew that the best way to seal his alliance with Penguin was to give him the one thing that Penguin craves the most: acceptance. By going over Bruce's head and returning all of the campaign bribes he manages to convince Oswald that he won the election fair and square, and Oswald hires him as his new #1 in return. Clever, clever riddler. (Amanda R.)

PULL LIST

When DC announced alternative imprint, Young Animal, I was all over it because 1. Former frontman of My Chemical Romance, Gerard Way, has creative control over it and 2. It was bound to be weird because have you read The Umbrella Academy?

Doom Patrol #2 sets the tone of establishing a team just as the #1 did by answering the quintessential question: who is Larry Trainor? Unfortunately for Larry, aka Negative Man, he's been separated from the Negative Spirit, causing some pretty gnarly side effects. Good thing our heroine from issue #1 is a paramedic, except her ambulance is not what it seems and it looks like those pesky aliens from the last issue might be on the hunt for it. Not one to allow aliens to screw with the world, Robotman has also managed to reunify with his whole self so he's there to save the day when the aliens start mucking up stuff. We end the issue with another reunion of the tall, dark, and male stripper-esque variety, surely setting the stage for next month's issue. (Christy)

The Detective Club is back! Sort of. Maps is determined to find a new mystery for the team to solve so that they can spend more time together. Olive feels the need to hang out with her terrible new roommate Amy since no one else wants to, and Maps is understandably upset. Students are disappearing into the woods around the school thanks to a mysterious witchy figure; can Detective Club pull it together and save our Maps?? (Amanda R.)

When brand new characters are given their own title I'm instantly intrigued. Morris Sackett is an Inhuman, but he doesn't known it until he gets swept up in terrigen mist. His day job is being the MVP for a pro basketball team, and truthfully he's kind of a douche. After his transformation he finds himself able to pick up "pieces" of other people's personalities by jumping from body to body. Now a man whose own body and talent were his ticket to stardom has to learn to share space with other people's bodies AND minds, and he can also control them. It's fast-paced, hella intriguing, and all kinds of morally grey. I'm hooked! (Amanda R.)

This week Squirrel Girl stars in her own original graphic novel! That’s right, this is an all-new story, so it’s like a bonus Squirrel Girl, which is just about the best bonus ever. In this adventure, Doreen Green finds herself in a strange new predicament. Literally, she finds herself, because she was accidentally cloned.

She turns to Tony Stark and Peter Parker (who has some experience in the whole being cloned situation), and all wisely agree to keep an eye on Allene (her clone). Everything thing seems fine—of course it does, two Squirrel Girls sounds awesome, right?—until they notice the one difference between Doreen and Allene. Can the combined might of the Avengers take on the rogue Squirrel Girl?

Just like the ongoing comics, you’ll find hilarious commentary running in the footnotes, programming inside jokes, and lots of eating nuts and kicking butts. Grab it if you’re already a fan. (Kelly)

AS SEEN IN THE DAILY PLANET

News

Vixen is back! You can watch the first episode of the second season here.

This show has its issues before it's even going to air, but LOOK AT HIS FIST.

SO much to talk about this week! Will Oliver ever learn anything about being a normal human being? Are y'all super stoked for the upcoming return of Jessie Quick AND the debut of the Justice Society? Let's dish below!

About the Author: Amanda R. is an East Coast girl living in California who will never stop missing a true autumn. She's a bookseller who specializes in kid and teen lit, the leader of FYA Oakland, and bakes a damn fine pie.